Delinquent behaviour T he IRA blew up a gasworks at War- rington. No one was killed, but a policeman was shot trying to arrest a man who escaped; two others were caught. In the...

Treason's off, but there's plenty more to choose from the out-to-lunch menu SIMON HEFFER L ast week a distinguished former public servant and her husband held a lunch party...

DOMINIC LAWSON T his week's letters pages suggest that our readers generally support The Spectator's rather lonely campaign against the Government's iniquitous proposal, in its...

There's more than a can of soup between Cezanne and Warhol CHARLES MOORE A t a dinner party quite recently, I found myself sitting next to a young woman who told me she was an...

Petronella Wyatt investigates the growing respectability and influence of astrology among the British I SCAN the page of newsprint. Good news for Capricorn and Cancer. With...

persist. . . I DON'T have many fundamental beliefs, but one of them is in the inevitability of hierarchy. Though per- sonally of humble origins, I consider myself very nearly...

John Simpson establishes eyebrow contact with a worn-out Fidel Castro Santiago de Cuba 'POR FAVOR, companero, por favor.' A stout sixtyish comrade, one of the women who...

WHEN a psychologist recently recom- mended that we should drop the word stress because it had lost its meaning, many people applauded her. If I shout at my husband or am tired...

Michael Heath

Robert Cottrell explains how France's President plans to spy on his own ministers Paris AN ELECTRONIC 'tap' into the code- breaking machinery of the French foreign ministry...

Anthony Daniels discovers that among some young people deprivation does not lead to criminality Johannesburg WHEN I was last in the Hillbrow district of Johannesburg, 17 years...

Anthony Holden interviews Nigel Short about his unlikely political alliance with his chessboard rival Gary Kasparov IN A BOLD flurry of moves late last week, Nigel Short...

Antagonism, fury, instant slaughter: a day in the chess player's life PAUL JOHNSON T he end of the Cold War opens the age of the Chess Wars. There is something symbolic in the...

Sir: The ill-mannered and poorly argued letter from Sir George Young (27 Febru- ary) is a reminder of how wise Mrs Thatch- er was to keep this latter-day Che Guevara from high...

and, well larded as it is With words like 'paternalism' and 'classless- ness', faintly reminiscent of post-war social- ism. He tries to lure us into interpretations of the law...

he may actually be sincere in what he is saying. The last time I heard people discussing the 'liberation' of other people's property was in the College bar, when making off...

Sir: I refer to the letter, alas from my broth- er David Gordon (Letters, 27 February), the Chairman of the Contemporary Art Society. In his letter he invites Spectator readers...

nothing of the kind. It was developed in the 17th century, at the same time as the Bank of England, mortgages, insurance and many other forms of 'mod- ern' capitalism. It is...

Sir: I was extremely angry to read in your music column (20 February) Robin Hol- loway's cutting and uncalled-for remarks about the music of George Lloyd. In recent years both...

Sir: Presuming that Mr Alastair Forbes cannot come to the fax, may I take the 'every schoolboy knows' class and rap Mr Brian Masters ever so lightly on the wrist for two errors...

Sir: You have uncovered in John Gummer (Books, 27 February) a writer of breathtak- ing comic genius, combining subtle irony with sharp social observation. He needs to be taught...

Sir: William Oddie reminds us yet again (`No sects please, we're British, 19 Decem- ber) that more Roman Catholics than Anglicans are at worship in England on a typical Sunday...

Sir: Sir Frederick Lawton in his article 'Prison is not enough' (27 February) obliquely acknowledges that the restoration of corporal punishment as a judicial sen- tence would...

Sir: Charles Moore's reasoned defence of his class (Another voice, 20 February) con- tains several fatal flaws. Chief among them, of course, is his assertion that his hated edi-...

He knew where the bodies were Hilary Mantel OFFICIAL AND CONFIDENTIAL: THE SECRET LIFE OF J. EDGAR HOOVER by Anthony Summers Gollancz, £18.99, pp. 528 C overs sell books, the...

Anita Brookner THE ORACLE AT STONELEIGH COURT by Peter Taylor Chatto & Windus, 174.99, pp. 324 0 ne would wish to compare Peter Taylor with Henry James, yet the compari- son...

Caroline Moore THE ENGLISH BIBLE AND THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY REVOLUTION by Christopher Hill Allen Lane, £25, pp. 466 H istory, the dedication to this book asserts, is 'about...

Dismay and grief contend for room. The upper hand is gained at first by grief; this much I understand. It has colour and a shape familiar to the eye. The taste is sharp: the...

James Walton THE LONG NIGHT OF WHITE CHICKENS by Francisco Goldman Faber, £14.99, pp. 450 DREAMING IN CUBAN by Cristina Garcia Flamingo, f5.99, pp, 245 THE MAN WHO TURNED INTO...

want to, you don't have to Julie Burchill WOMEN, CELIBACY AND PASSION by Sally Cline Deutsch, £16.99, pp. 280 C elibacy was once seen as the dreary province — the suburb,...

William Leith SEX AND THE BRITISH by Paul Ferris Michael Joseph, £18.99, pp. 301 I t is 1965. Kenneth Tynan, asked on live television whether he would allow sexual intercourse...

Simon Henry THE VENERABLE BEAD by Richard Condon Michael Joseph, £14.99, pp. 304 T ake a population which arms itself with guns, an administrative capital riddled with bribery...

Architecture Let the green grass grow Alan Powers visits Potsdamer Platz, once the Piccadilly Circus of Berlin T urn north from the Berlin Philhar- monie, with its gilded...

Henri Matisse 1904-1917 (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, till 21 June) Modernism accepted Giles Auty A s an admirer of many things French, I must confess nevertheless to...

The Sisters Rosensweig (Ethel Barrymore Theater) Rediscovered souls Douglas Colby D espite Wendy Wasserstein's position as America's pre-eminent woman drama- tist, her plays...

Wrinkle rock lives on Marcus Berkmann T , orrents of scorn and contumely have descended upon the recent Brits awards, whose winners turned out to have an aver- age age of 276...

Under Seige ('15', selected cinemas) Lorenzo's Oil ('12', Selected Cinemas) Emotional turmoil Vanessa Letts U nder Seige comes from a genre of films, including the Die Hard...

Mistral made for mockery Martyn Harris T he main reason critics have been so savage about A Year In Provence (BBC1, Sunday, 8.30 p.m.) is jealousy. Peter Mayle, the author of...

Murder is Easy (Duke of York's) An Inspector returns Sheridan Morley T he Inspector looked up wearily from his desk in the West End station just off Shaftesbury Avenue; 'of...

Old school ties Jeffrey Bernard A last I have laid the ghost that had haunted me for 45 years. My return visit to Pangbourne College to speak to the sixth formers went very...

Par for the course Taki T he mother of my children rang me from the Big Bagel in order to tell me not to worry, the family had survived the blast in the tower. 'If anything,'...

Sit back and applaud Nigel Nicolson T here was (still is) a parlour-game in which you are asked who you would like to be if you weren't you. The smart answer is, 'Me'. But it...

THE WEST of London is already studded with good Italian restaurants: Riva in Barnes, the River Café on the Fulham/Hammersmith borders, Cibo and L'Altro in West and North...

Tanks on the lawn Raymond Keene Chess Federation, launched last Friday by Gary Kasparov and Nigel Short reminds me very much of those accounts one regularly reads of...

Very vulgar Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1768 you were in- vited to describe, as a guest, an appallingly tasteless entertainment given to friends and parasites by a modern...

A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 22 March, with two runners-up prizes of £10 (or, for UK...

One heck of a footballer Frank Keating THE SUDDEN death, of cancer, of the once upstanding captain of the England soccer team which won the World Cup 27 years ago has set in...

Dear Mary. . . Q. Your sage words to the well known leave me feeling you could help me with a serious problem. My femme de ménage is a trea- sure; losing her would be like...